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Where will your runners go this summer?

The 10km programme has run its course but the fun is only beginning

Get Runners: Dubliner Margaret O’Donnell emailed us from California to share her delight at having completed her first run/walk event last weekend, with her Irish Times Get Running T-shirt and her friend Amy Pederson. ‘It was a four-mile run to benefit the families of the US navy, and was from downtown San Diego over the Coronado Bridge into Coronado. This is all thanks to your wonderful programme, which I’m still following, although I am only on week 4 of the 10k training. Mind you, better to be on week 4 than sitting on my sofa, watching TV and stuffing food into myself,’ she says

This is the final week of our Get Running 10km programme. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of it. Many of you will be packing running shoes in your holiday suitcases this year for the first time. You know who you are, and I would like you to know how proud I am of you.

Make a special effort to stay running this summer. The hardest bit was getting started on those dark winter evenings.

Now you are up and moving, keep on running throughout the summer and don’t let all your hard work go to waste.

Long evenings Take advantage of the long evenings and bright mornings while we have them.

Aim for three runs a week – and remember, if you need a little kickstart you can join our 5km and 10km Get Running programmes at any time through irishtimes.com/ getrunning.

There are parkruns all around the country every Saturday morning too.

They are free, and the perfect way to start your weekend. It is a lot easier to run 5km in a group than on your own.

You might even find one where you travel on your summer holidays.

I will continue to write about running in Health + Family and on irishtimes.com/getrunning, and we will be with you all summer, wherever you are, whatever distance you are running, on Facebook and Twitter.

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